My 6-year-old planned an entire St. Lucia Day Celebration for us (see HERE). The only thing I had to do was to come up with and help bake a recipe for St. Lucia buns. Coming up with a recipe we could actually eat ended up being more difficult than I thought it would be, as none of the recipes I found online were quite right for one reason or another – they either had grains or dairy or guar gum or other things we try to avoid. So I ended up creating my own recipe.
These are not intended to be super sweet buns. Their origin is from a time before sweets were so ubiquitous. But their subtle sweetness is perfect for a special breakfast, especially when that breakfast is heralded by your 6-year-old in a costume he made himself proclaiming, “St. Lucia welcomes you to breakfast.”
Here’s how we made them:
Ingredients
- 5-5.5 cups almond flour (enough so the dough will hold together in order to shape it)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup applesauce
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon saffron
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- Raisins, for topping
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine all ingredients except the almond flour and the raisins in a mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer; I’m guessing a food processor would also work). Beat the mixture until it’s smooth and everything is combined.
- Slowly add the almond flour, a little at a time, until the dough holds together and it looks like you’ll be able to roll it in your hands. (It won’t look like yeast bread dough, more like a sticky cookie dough.)
- Line two baking sheets with a sheet of parchment paper each. Take a small handful of dough and roll it between your hands until it forms a log. Shape this log into a S and then place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Continue until you have rolled all of the dough into S-shapes.
- Place raisins on each of the buns. Traditionally, they are stuck inside the S-curves; my boys decided to decorate the entire tops with raisins.
- Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until done.
Grain-Free, Dairy-Free St. Lucia Buns
Makes approximately 24 small buns
5-5.5 cups almond flour (enough so the dough will hold together in order to shape it)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup applesauce
4 eggs
¼ cup honey
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Raisins, for topping
Baking sheets
Parchment paper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients except the almond flour and the raisins in a mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer; a hand mixer or, I’m guessing, a food processor would also work). Beat the mixture until it’s smooth and everything is combined.
Slowly add the almond flour, a little at a time, until the dough holds together and it looks like you’ll be able to roll it in your hands. (It won’t look like yeast bread dough, more like a sticky cookie dough.)
Line two baking sheets with a sheet of parchment paper each. Take a small handful of dough and roll it between your hands until it forms a log. Shape this log into a S and then place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Continue until you have rolled all of the dough into S-shapes.
Place raisins on each of the buns. Traditionally, they are stuck inside the S-curves; my boys decided to decorate the entire tops with raisins.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until done.
This is such a great recipe – we’ll definitely try it this year. Do you think you could use the same recipe for other shapes? I’m trying to figure out how to make dragon shaped bread for Michaelmas that’s grain-free and dairy-free. Thanks!
You’re going to make a dragon shaped bread? That is so fantastic! I would love to see it.
This dough is more moist and sticky than a typical yeast dough, but we were able to roll it and shape it without too much trouble (though our shapes were, obviously, super simple). I’m guessing you could make a dragonish shape with it, as long as you weren’t trying to make anything too complex. It would be fun too try. If it ends up being too difficult to shape a dragon, you could always default to a simpler fall-back.